From the New York Times:
After coming under suspicion by the FBI in the anthrax investigation:
Perry Mikesell began drinking heavily, as much as a fifth a day, and died.
A doctor in New York's marriage failed and his practice was adversely affected.
Two Pakistani brothers, Dr. Irshad Shaikh and his brother, Dr. Masood Shaikh, were forced to leave the US to find jobs after FBI "agents in bioprotection suits began hunting for germ-making equipment and carted away computers." Neither had ever worked with anthrax. The story played on TV for days.
Stephen Hatfill was hounded by the FBI, lost his job At LSU, but finally won a lawsuit against the government after they ruined his life. "...in one remarkable encounter, a car that was trailing him ran over his foot. (Dr. Hatfill, not the agent, was given a ticket.)"
FBI agents broke down the door and invaded and searched the home of Asif Kazi, a citizen of the US. Footage of the investigation was on TV for days. He had never worked with anthrax.
And those were the innocent.
Now the FBI wants to close the case, stating that they are certain that Bruce Ivins, acting alone, is the guilty party in the anthrax mailings. Bruce Ivins committed suicide.
Too many loose ends are still hanging. The FBI wants to close this case quickly because they bungled the investigation badly and want to put it behind them. They messed up many lives along the way in their botched investigation. This is not going away.
Have I ever mentioned that I love your passion for justice and your determination not to let things be swept under the rug?
ReplyDeleteThe way this case was conducted is a scandal.
Ruth, thank you. Mine is a small voice, and I don't know that posts like this one accomplish much in the wider world, but they help to keep my head from exploding.
ReplyDeleteGrandmere --please don't let your head explode. Keep writing.
ReplyDeletemy head hurts too. I didn't know all this.
ReplyDeleteand yes, I'm with Ruth, too.
Well, thanks all. Maybe I do perform a service.
ReplyDeleteMimi, you are doing fine. Many of the skills required for this sort of thing are pretty minimal (undergrads learn them during micro biology or molecular biology classes) so to pretend that great accomplishment is needed is not right.
ReplyDeleteIt's when the citizne stop demanding that the govt behave honestly that disaster occurs.
IT
Oh yes, Mimi, cases like these do go away.
ReplyDeleteWe have one in my diocese in which the bishop accused a priest of taking church money, inhibited him for 3 years and then because he was not willing for the evidence of the bishop's malfesance to be known, was unable to bring a case against the priest.
The priest has had a heart attack, been unable to work, been without insurance while his daughter was diagonosed with a virilant cancer. And when anyone in the diocese demands for an accounting from the the bishop, we are being told that the case is closed. Still the priest is not allowed to work.
Yes, these things are just swept over and we are supposed to "go on". It isn't just a phenomenon of governement--we find it in the church too.
IT, thanks. We must keep watch.
ReplyDeleteMuthah+, I'm sorry about the priest. The statement that this will not go away is only my opinion. Of course, I could be wrong.
I remember there were this anthrax scare a few yeas back. Here we just laughed at those silly Americans...
ReplyDeleteThis time I actually thought at first they had got the culprit.
Now I don't any longer...
Göran, it was not simply a scare. Five people died, and 22 became ill from anthrax. That part wasn't funny. Neither is the botched investigation funny.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I have always been suspicious that this "real anthrax" episode was black ops from either a faction within the government (possibly the leading faction), or less likely, some Pierce*-reading militia member scientists in Ft. Detrick. Object being - panic the populace and establish the "need" for Big Brother suspension of civil liberties.
ReplyDelete*(Pierce wrote a widely distributed and famous book called the Turner Diaries, essentially a wish-fulfillment novel about overthrowing the Zionist Government of America and starting a race war with extermination of blacks, Jews, and gays. The book is ubiquitous among the militia types.)
OK, so call me a tin-foil-hat type.The biggest argument against government black ops is that the sheer incompetence of much of the government probably extends to the black ops (FBI, CIA) types.
NancyP
NancyP, we all wear tin-foil hats. Solidarity!
ReplyDeleteOf course it will all go away. Such unpleasantness. We'll all cheer for the Obama team and all the past will be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThat, of course, is what's gotten us into this kettle of fish but that's what will happen... again.
You're a rock star Mimi!
Aawww, Lindy, thanks. I'll bet Rowan told you to say that.
ReplyDelete